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Lenient drug sentences worry Swedish police

Published: 1 Jan 13 11:01 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/45360/20130101/

The Swedish Supreme Court (Högsta Domstolen) has become more lenient when sentencing drug dealers, a trend that worries police who say it endangers their counter-narcotics work.

A review by regional daily Göteborgs-Posten (GP) shows that the Swedish court has changed tack after a verdict in June 2011. It set a legal precedent that courts must take into account not only the amount of drugs being sold, but look at all surrounding circumstances.

For example, courts are expected to look at whether the dealer worked for a bigger organised network and at how long he or she had been selling drugs.

In practice, crimes that were once punished by up to ten years in jail will from now on only entail five years on the inside, Stefan Reiman, counsellor at Helsingborg district court of appeals, told GP.

Police sources told the newspaper they are worried the new rulings will affect their investigations.

The length of a possible sentence determines factors such as how easy it is for the police to set up a wire tap.

GP also cites a report from the National Bureau of Investigation (Rikskriminalen) that claims shorter sentencing has already lead to more drugs being on sale out on the streets.

TT/The Local/at
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12:40 January 1, 2013 by johan rebel
Time to give up on that wasteful, expensive, pointless and fruitless war on drugs. Just sell the stuff OTC or on prescription and let people get on with it.

Reducing sentences is a small step in the right direction. Until very recently Sweden was a country were possession of fairly small amounts of narcotics was punished more harshly than murder.
14:00 January 1, 2013 by Rishonim
Why aren't the police worried about the lenient sentences for rape and murder? Really screwed up priorities!...
10:42 January 2, 2013 by smilingjack
yep. plenty of drugs available on the street. go to your nearest apotek.

the comment was made that the people doing the mass murders in the USA are invariably kiddies stoked to the eyeballs on prescription drugs. most of the kiddy population of the USA is up to their eyeballs in ritalin and the like. see latest mass shooting where the shooter was prescribed several harmless drugs. paid for by the tax payer straight to the biggest drug pushers in the world.

no place for relatively harmless and cheap ( if not free ) cannabis out there taking valueable $$$ away from the pharmaceutical giants dictating policy .just pop on down to your local sys bog and grab several bottles of el cheapo 45% alcohol booze and knock yourself out champ. even better get absolutely stoinked on $500 a bottle of champers and your "classy".

smoke a joint and your EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!! and one step from climbing a clock tower with an AK47.

Remember its the USA pushing every other country to class cannabis as a class 1 drug so their corporate drug pushers can get their product on the shelf.

soma ( brave new world ) for everyone and if you dont know what soma is look it up. even better go and read brave new world as a surveillance drone passes overheard and microsoft and apple sift through your emails.
23:11 January 2, 2013 by Bentham
"Why aren't the police worried about the lenient sentences for rape and murder? Really screwed up priorities!..."

@Rishonim

Clearly you've no clue about the legal system in this country and has proably gotten all your mumbo-jumbo sensational info from laughable "newspapers" like the Local or even worse, Metro.

Do you call being sentenced to undetermined time with a *minimum* time of 18 years before the case can even be tried for an eventual determination of time as lenient?

There are loads of people with murder sentences who's been jailed for decades and most of them will never get out either. If however, there's a set time it's very rarely under 25-30 years, but in 99% of the murder cases the perpetrator will be sentenced to undetermined time in prison, which I personally think is a harsher punishment than for life time, 25 or 50 years as it's probably more mentally stressful.

So read up on the facts more carefully before you make ignorant comments next time dude.
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